Jabalpur first to have e-library for visually impaired students

Source: The Hitavada Date: 01 Sep 2017 11:03:17

By Shivanjali Verma,

There is a common notion about Government institutes that they are not well equipped and have sub-quality services and if the institute belongs to disabled then the condition cannot be imagined. Breaking this myth, the district administration has established an e-Library for visually impaired students in Government Higher Secondary School for blind, Bheraghat By-pass to join them with the mainstream.

Till date, following limited resources, visually impaired students always had a lower hand when it came to education. Now, Jabalpur has become the first district in the State to have an e-Library for blind students that too in a Government institute. The library ensures same ease of access to books and magazines for students with blindness that students without disabilities enjoy in other schools.

Equipped with five computers arranged with the support of Central Bank of India, the library is maintained by the district administration alone without any Government fund. The school has become one of the 147 members of Sugamya Pustkalaya in the country to make access to range of diverse subjects and language books with multiple accessible formats. Now, students are getting books of their choice on just one click. They can hear, record or download the content for studies. Collector Mahesh Chandra Choudhary, when contacted, informed this newspaper that till date due to lack of resources, visually impaired students had restricted access to information and books.

Now, through e-library, we have tried to meet educational need of blind children. The e-library makes children efficient to access information in a format that matches their needs i.e. Braille and audio. “We are using advanced technologies to increase information choices for visually impaired children to enhance a culture of learning. Till now production of formats like Braille and audio was limited and expansive and hence only a small quantity of published work was made available.

Now, with digital formats the situation has changed. With text-to-speech software that read aloud digital text, information comes smoothly for visually impaired students,” informed CEO of Jila Panchayat Harshika Singh. The administration is also making efforts to procure Braille printer to expand facilities for blind students.